Liberalism helped bring down Wall Street giants

We are now in a $700 billion debacle as Wall Street giants and mortgage kings fell one by one. As Congress still debate over the rescue (or bailout) bill, many liberals are blaming the current administration for lack of financial oversight and regulation. But that's certainly not the case as Stan Liebowitz points out on New York Post:

Pushed hard by politicians and community activists, the regulators systematically and deliberately altered financially sound lending practices.

The mortgage market was humming along just fine when, in the late 1980s, progressives decided that it needed to be "fixed." Their complaint: Some ethnic groups got approved for mortgages at lower rates than others.

So what was done to "fix" this? Banks were forced to adopt "relaxed lending standards" or face the consequences of violating the federal Community Reinvestment Act. Essentially, banks had to take on much greater risks in lending to people who cannot afford to. These high-risk mortgages were sold to Fannie and Freedie for decades, increasing home ownership and inflating home valuation, until finally the day when the owners cannot pay.

Just another example of the harm of liberal influence in government policy. Leave the market alone and it will run itself.